Intellectual Property Law - General & Miscellaneous
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Overview
Christopher May and Susan Sell trace the history of social conflict and political machinations surrounding the making of property out of knowledge. Ranging from ancient commerce in Greek poems to present-day controversies about online piracy and the availability of AIDS drugs in the poorest countries, May and Sell present intellectual property law as a continuing process in which particular conceptions of rights and duties are institutionalized; each settlement prompts new disputes, policy shifts, and new disputes again. They also examine the post-TRIPs era in the context of this process. Their account of two thousand years of technological advances, legal innovation, and philosophical arguments about the character of knowledge production suggests that the future of intellectual property law will be as contested as its past.Synopsis
Intellectual property rights' issues now routinely make headline news whereas copyrights, patents, and such were once considered specialist concerns. May (political economy, Lancaster U.) and Sell (political science, George Washington U.) argue that such rights can even be a matter of life or death, e.g., in the case of making generic versions of AIDS drugs available. In tracing the emergence of these rights, they discuss how their relation to social norms, political philosophy and policy. The authors conclude with a discussion of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement required of World Trade Organization members. The glossary of acronyms is helpful. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Book Details
Published
August 1, 2005
Publisher
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
Pages
240
Format
Library Binding
ISBN
9781588263636